HOT OFF THE PRESS: (good news, although dell has the challenge of increasing support in step with incredible sales growth)...NOTE THAT DELL/IBM WILL MOST LIKELY IMPROVE THIS SOON...cheers, GR
Dell Continues Its Reign as Top Vendor in TBR's 1Q99 Customer Satisfaction Ratings, Yet Weakness Cited for On-Site Support; Compaq Notebook and IBM Intel-Based Server Satisfaction Scores Decline
BUSINESS WIRE - May 03, 1999 12:03
HAMPTON, N.H. (May 3) BUSINESS WIRE -May 3, 1999--Technology Business Research's (www.tbri.com) first quarter 1999 Corporate IT Buying Behavior and Customer Satisfaction Study is based on interviews with 341 IT Managers at U.S. large corporations, conducted between mid-January and early April. Consistent with previous quarters, Dell retains its number one ranking across all three form factors, based on a scoring system that weights customer satisfaction ratings by the importance of the various attributes. Overall, the key recurring areas of concern this quarter include cost of ownership issues, configuration issues, delivery and availability, replacement parts availability, declining on-site support expertise among the systems vendors as well as third parties, and relatively lower scores for notebooks regardless of vendor, particularly for repair time.
Sample Size 1Q Score Rank % Change % Change
4Q98 over 1Q99 over
3Q98(a) 4Q98
Notebook:
Dell 98 84.68 1 -4.5% 0%
IBM 115 80.97 2 -4.9% -1.5%
Toshiba 47 79.05 3 -3.9% +1.8%
Compaq 65 76.16 4 -4.4% -4.0%
Intel Servers:
Dell 52 86.84 1 +1.7% -2.3%
Compaq 179 85.32 2 0% 0%
Hewlett-Packard 46 84.76 3 -2.0% 0%
IBM 51 80.72 4 +4.2% -8.5%
Desktops:
Dell 102 84.94 1 +0.8% -2.2%
IBM 62 82.32 2 +0.7% 0%
Compaq 99 81.27 3 +3.7% -1.9%
Gateway 35 80.09 4 +1.1% -1.0%
Hewlett-Packard 51 79.75 5 -0.9% -3.4%
(a)Appearance of falling scores for all notebook vendors in 4Q98 rankings the result of adjusted weightings due to increased importance of certain attributes, e.g., delivery time, repair time.
Compaq (NYSE:CPQ) makes a very strong showing this quarter in the Intel-based server competitive analysis, with particular strength in the performance features (upgradability/scalability, storage capacity, and server management). While on-site support is not cited as a competitive weakness, there is strong evidence that this is an area with room for improvement. It is in the mobile products arena where Compaq customers interviewed expressed some very deeply-rooted concerns. Compaq's scores show an overall decline this quarter in areas such as delivery time, availability, set-up/configuration, DOA incidences product design, and support. While scores for reliability and pricing have stabilized over previous quarters, Compaq is clearly out of the competition. Product integrity complaints continue, including everything from bad systems boards to hard drives and cards to displays.
Dell's (NASDAQ:DELL) customer satisfaction scores have reached the inevitable leveling off this quarter following its run for remarkable improvement in consecutive preceding quarters. Dell, however, continues to benefit from its customers' positive perceptions. Dell respondents in the sample are the most likely group to give their vendor a series of 'A' ratings across the attributes. In spite of Dell's leadership position in the ratings, some changes discovered this quarter represent a continuation of hinted inconsistencies from the previous two quarters. On-site support for the desktop has been cited this quarter as a weakness for Dell, based on the perception that there is evidence of a considerable lack of technical expertise regarding some of Dell's authorized service partners. While Dell historically has far exceeded the competition regarding customer perceptions of volume discounting, the past several quarters have shown that this is becoming a more competitive area, and this quarter confirms that a larger proportion of Dell's customers do not believe Dell is aggressive enough with its discounting policies.
IBM (NYSE:IBM) would likely be a leader in notebook customer satisfaction were it not for delivery and availability issues, as well as configuration and set-up issues. In the Intel server arena, the repeating pattern this quarter is that there are three vendors perceived as exceptional, with IBM being the conspicuous outlier, for whom the scores average around the 'B' level. IBM is weak against the competition across most of the attributes save support, cost of ownership, and volume discounting for their Intel-based servers. Among the principal areas of concern among IBM's server customers are slow lead times for new technology, poor upgrade path, configuration and compatibility issues, parts availability, overpricing, and a level of increase in DOAs. While support did not emerge as a particular weakness, TBR collected several comments regarding a lack of technical expertise and an increase in support costs.
Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP) makes a competitive showing this quarter for its Intel-based servers. The most common complaint, and this translates to desktops as well, is cost of ownership (costs over time) and an unwillingness on the part of HP to provide volume discounts as an incentive. There continue to be some issues revolving around configuration inflexibility, and technical support response (on the desktop only).
Gateway (NYSE:GTW) customer satisfaction ratings on the desktop show consistency over previous quarters. The vendor continues to under-perform against the competition regarding volume discounts, however this is not an area cited as important to Gateway's customers in the sample, who tend to believe that price/performance, Gateway's principal strength, represents the true value. 6 Technical support response scores showed continued improvement this quarter.
Toshiba shows a level of improvement in its customer satisfaction scores this quarter, particularly regarding repair time, reliability, and price/performance. Toshiba's principal drawbacks include volume discounting, where Toshiba is scored by its customers on a significantly lower plane than the competitors' customers, and product availability.
The complete study results are contained in TBR's ninth consecutive quarterly Corporate IT Buying Behavior and Customer Satisfaction Study. The first quarter study represents an installed base of approximately 1.7 million systems and a purchase intent of over 400,000 systems. The report is based on interviews with MIS/IT and purchasing managers at 341 large U.S. corporations. For vendors, distributors, large end users and the investment community, this program has become the preeminent tactical tool for monitoring customer satisfaction from quarter to quarter. A customer satisfaction research program subscription, consisting of four quarterly reports, is available for $5,000 annually to interested parties through the contacts listed below.
Complete results available to accredited journalists.
-0- bh/bos*
CONTACT: Technology Business Research, Inc. Julie Perron, 603/929-1166
perron@tbri.com or
Jon Lindy, 203/426-7172 lindy@tbri.com
or Ed Wagner, 650/712-0355
ewagner@tbri.com
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